May 3-6, 2015
Rancho Palos Verdes, CaliforniaThis May, agency leaders will converge
to discuss the latest tools, tactics, and strategies for finding the right balance
between experience and experimentation.Summit Info

Facebook's new functions (and how to leverage them)

Function 3

Facebook Mobile is huge -- how are you leveraging it? More than 100 million Facebook users, out of the total 400 million user base, connect to Facebook via mobile. Although, unfortunately, there was no big announcement on location-based functions during the F8 conference other than a small nod to a project called Presence, there's no doubt that once this is realized, mobile will be a huge area of growth for Facebook, as well as a strong social glue to the consumers at retail and on the streets.

As iPhone and other smartphone user bases continue to grow, Facebook mobile usage is something to watch. Users who have Facebook mobile applications installed on their smartphones are twice as active as the average Facebook user. The future of Facebook mobile and location is undefined at the moment, but the true benefit would be for Facebook fans to be given offers from retailers. With recent talks of Facebook's location feature scheduled to launch in the next month, mobile will be a game changer for the Facebook platform

Imagine if you were fan of Target on Facebook and entered a Target store. You could access your Facebook application, and a geo-locator would recognize you were a fan of Target and also recognize your current location. A special offer would be pushed to you, and the opportunity to share this message to your friends would be available. This is just scratching the surface of what's possible. Additional data could be pulled directly from your profile, and offers could be customized to you directly from Facebook. Ultimately, if Facebook could crack this opportunity, it would limit the need for a user to download each stores' independent app. They'd simply fan a brand on Facebook for a chance to get fed unique location-based offers. Now tie back the loyalty programs we brought up earlier, and you can start to see how this picture will play out in the coming years.

The true beauty of Facebook Mobile will be realized once geo-location is unveiled.

Lonny - interesting point, people are inclined to be more trigger happy with a keyboard than they would be in real life with regard to promoting something. If you look at sites like Glue.com its all about liking a ton of items across a range of categories. Ultimately, I think we could start to see people get "Like Happy" and carelessly start liking everything they have a mild interest in just bcs the button is there.

What becomes of the data and patterns will be determined. For now privacy seems to be the surging topic and potential data abuse. The likelihood is that people will approach the 'like' functionality with caution due to all the privacy madness.

Peter: well worth exploring. i definetly see the need for more brand marketers to embrace a 'Reviews' tab on their FB Pages, and encourage user reviews. This could even extend to a Dr. who encourages his patients to post reviews on his page. With regard to Yelp, Citysearch and the likes being crushed by FB reviews, i think it would take considerable time.

Yelp has a strong and pretty loyal user base, + they have their coveted Super Reviewers. Similar to an eBay power seller. It will be tough for those core reviewers to jump ship to FB anytime soon.

Right now, Facebook seems to be going a similar path with their Community Pages, but any strong review functionality is still early stage. In the near term the power of the like button is being integrated into Yelp and its much more of a casual click vs writing a full review.

Important considerations for all brand marketers and web entrepreneurs. The scope and scale of the power FB is accumulating makes Google seem small by comparison.

Am curious to know how you see the future of review sites like Yelp, TripAdvisor and Zagat reviews?

Specifically, do you see FB replacing them? Seems with the ability for users to "like" any page on the web, they will also have the ability to accumulate, sort and filter that information in ways that could make current review sites irrelevant?

I like this piece. Social Networking and Social Media are about consensus in concentric circles and the areas where those circles overlap is your middle ground, your keywords, your concepts and ideas which reach across arcania of ideas to find the audience. When Facebook Introduced the like feature, it realized it would be spinning this off into the ether across a blogger or article writers piece or onto our desktop thru multiple channels.

But is FB really finding patterns, rythyms, and sociological data about real people? Or the online identity they have created for themselves? Is some aspect of our lives moving over into the realm of fantasy along with the "like" button? Do we even really like what we just read? or are we just blasting out code because we can, and we like it?

The moment you referred readers to The Huffington Post, my eyes glazed over, my concentration was lost, and my belief in marketer's reliance on Capitalism, diminished. THP is radically Left... which means they oppose every element of any purposeful marketer's intent... the opportunity for their client to profit.

THP hates those clients, yet you think they offer a lesson in marketing. Well, so did Leni Riefenstahl, for Hitler.

Your actions (because of your ideas of what is right) only achieve the destruction of all upon which you rely, long term. Both you & your clients need to make your smartest choices WITHOUT a bureaucrat deciding those choices for you. As soon as the bureaucrat makes your decisions, you will see that he DOES NOT HAVE YOUR BEST INTERESTS IN MIND.

Stop drinking the Obama Kool-Aid. Get a conscience. Market for individual success, not for the collectivist cries of Leftists.

Facebook has collectivist elements, because that is how its members work. Lead them to thinking for themselves, or join with Josef Goebbels. That is how sickening your article is, to those who care about individual peoples' lives.

Great recommedations Doug! I would add that brands should take advantage of the Facebook self service platform, which allows advertisers to buy ads directly from the site, and use this to cross-promote relevant messages about their campaigns in real time. Doing so could increase engagement on fb by followers.